


Secret Agents and Corn Dogs

by maplestreet83



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-12
Updated: 2019-01-12
Packaged: 2019-10-09 01:16:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17397308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maplestreet83/pseuds/maplestreet83
Summary: Max and Lucas are in Junior year of high school and planning to go and see “They Live” on opening night. Their plans fall over though as Lucas gets stuck with a last-minute shift at his job at the mall food court. But Max is determined to not let that ruin their Friday night.





	Secret Agents and Corn Dogs

**Author's Note:**

> With all the seriousness going on right now on 'Back to You', I needed a little break and wanted to write something cute and lighthearted with these two. So here are 4k words of pure innocent and harmless fluff with these two, cause there's never too much of it in the world. Hope you enjoy!

Lucas sighed as he opened his locker, shoving in his coat and starting to take out the books for his first two classes of the day. He usually didn’t mind his job. Yeah, it was at a mall fast food place so it wasn’t the most glamorous thing, but it was easy enough and the pay was pretty good. But his boss really needed to work on getting the schedules out sooner and not moving shifts around last minute.

“Hi there!” Max’s voice rung cheerfully from behind him, startling him just a bit.

“Hey,” Lucas said, turning to her as she walked closer, already holding her books for English Lit and Calculus. She was all out beaming from excitement, her blue eyes bright and her smile wide.

“You all ready for tonight? I was thinking on the way to the mall, we could swing by somewhere and get like a bulk bag of M&Ms to share? I think the pockets of my coat are big enough to smuggle it in. Or if they aren’t you can try?” Max explained, speaking quickly and excitedly and Lucas nodded as he turned back to his locker, picking up his binders and books.

“Ooor if you’d rather get popcorn at the theater that’s fine too, I mean…” Max said, her tone shifting as she settled to lean against the locker next to his, noticing the blank look and tenseness on his face.

“No, no that sounds great. I just…” Lucas answered, sighing as he paused, trying to delay the inevitable.

“My boss called. Corey’s sick, I need to take the night shift tonight,” he finally said, gritting his teeth as he turned to Max. This was the third time a last-minute shift change had ruined their date. Max nodded, her face getting all scrunched up as she looked down, doing her best to hide her disappointment from him.

“Max, I’m sorry. He just called me this morning, I…”

“Hey, I get it. It’s okay,” Max said, turning to him, her arm reaching out to him, naturally and instinctively and he took her hand in his as he groaned in frustration.

“I just don’t get why it’s always me, you know. Why doesn’t he ever call Madison to cover?”

“Simple. It’s because you’re a better employee,” Max stated matter-of-factly with a shrug of her shoulders. Lucas huffed, glancing away but she persisted:

“You are! You’re committed, trustworthy… How many other 17-year-olds would sacrifice a Friday night to go to work last-minute?” Max argued and Lucas looked back at her with a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

“I guess you’re right,” he said, gently squeezing her fingers with his and pulling her a bit closer as his smile widened just a bit.

“I am. Hot Dog on a Stick would simply perish without you,” Max said with a smile of her own as she let Lucas pull her to him.

“And we can’t let that happen,” he said, reaching to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, casually tilting her head up to him as he did.

“Right, where would people get their reasonably-priced corn dogs then? The world would simply descend to anarchy!” Max exclaimed, her eyes wide in faked outrage and biting down on her lip as she tried to stifle a laugh.

“Mmhm,” Lucas just voiced, fighting his smile just long enough to lean down to kiss her, his lips light on hers as she laughed against him a bit before kissing him back, her hand that was not holding her books coming to his side, loosely holding onto the fabric of his baseball jacket. Lucas let out a calming breath - he had been nervous how she would take the news - as he softly brushed his thumb against her cheek, settling into the kiss. Why did he even need a job anyways? Why couldn’t they just do this all day instead and not have to worry…

“Oh, umm, sorry guys, I just need to…” Lucas’s eyes flew open and the two of them jerked apart and looked at his locker neighbor, a tall kid in glasses who was standing a couple of feet from them, looking beyond awkward as he pointed at his locker Max was currently standing in front of.

“Oh, yeah, sorry! Go ahead!” Lucas said, clearing his throat and stepping aside a bit to let him to his locker.

“Sorry,” Max echoed, her teeth grit in embarrassment as she too stepped away, her cheeks a little red. Then the bell rang and Lucas went back to getting his stuff from his locker and over the loudness of the people around them slamming shut their locker doors and heading to class, Max said:

“But speaking of descending into anarchy; They Live? While you’re at the mall can you check the showtimes? Could go see it tomorrow?”

“Yeah I will,” Lucas answered, closing his locker door and looking up at the clock hanging on the hallway wall. He had to book it if he wanted to make it to his Honors Chem class in the science hall in time.

“Great! See you at lunch!” Max yelled over the clamor around them, already starting to walk backwards towards her homeroom class too.

“See you!” Lucas answered, giving her a short wave before he was off too, joining the flood of people hurrying down the hallway.

 

“Here’s your cheese on a stick and your lemonade. Enjoy!” Lucas said with his best customer service smile as he handed out the tray to the customers, a bored looking teenage girl with what looked like her little brother. As they took their order and walked away, Lucas rolled his achy shoulders, picking up a rag and starting to wipe mustard stains from the counter. His gaze wandered over the food court, which was surprisingly empty for a Friday night. It had just been Halloween earlier in the week so there was a mix of leftover Halloween decorations and some early Christmas ones decorating the storefronts. There was no one in line, so he let his attention stray a bit, looking up at the fake spiderwebs and sheet ghosts hanging from the high second story ceiling above the food court, wondering how people had managed to get them up there. Not everyone had help from someone with telekinesis. Finished with cleaning, Lucas turned around, looking over at the workstations and deep fryers. He could kill the time by making some more lemonade? Or getting a new batch of fries ready?

“Hello good sir! I would like to purchase one of your finest sausage and dough-based delicacies.”

Lucas frowned at the high-pitched voice of the customer behind him at the counter. He swore he only knew one person with that horrible fake British accent. He turned around and his eyes widened in surprise as he saw Max standing behind the counter, a grin on her face.

“Max? What are you doing here?” he asked, confused but delighted, coming over to her. Max shrugged and said:

“Well… as you know my plans for the night kind of fell out, so I was just at home working on an essay when I suddenly got this hankering for corn dogs. So here I am!”

“But I’ll only get out in three more hours?” Lucas explained but Max just shrugged.

“I know. But I figured that if you were having a sucky night, and I was having one too, if I came here to keep you company, it would only make sense that it would halve the suckiness,” she explained with a glint in her eye.

“Plus,” she added, stepping a bit closer and reaching her hand up to tug at the ridiculous multicolored hat he had on. “I’ll never pass out on an occasion to see you in this stupid uniform.”

“Yeah, I figured,” Lucas said, straightening his hat as she leaned away again.

“But thank you,” he added with a soft smile and if he weren’t as good an employee, he would’ve reached over the counter to kiss her. Instead he spread his arms wide in a showman-like stance and said:

“So, if it’s delicious corn dogs you’re after, step right up, I’m your man!” Max grinned at him and then focused on the menu on the wall above him, trying to find the very best they had to offer.

 

The time did start to pass a little quicker after that and with it getting a bit busier too, Lucas wasn’t feeling quite as bored out of his mind when he entered hour three of his five-hour shift. In between cashing in customers and frying corn dogs and french fries, he would steal a glance over at the table by the fountain where Max was sitting, slowly eating while reading a book she had brought with her to pass the time. She had just started a new series of spy novels and was flying through them. Lucas was pretty sure this was the third one in the series and judging by the pace she was reading it, she would finish it by the end of the night. She was sitting back on the metal and plastic chair, her red Vans propped up on another chair across the table as she flipped through the pages, her face focused and her brows raising every so often in surprise or furrowing in concentration as she read. It was honestly one of Lucas’s favorite things to do when they were just hanging out, watching her lost in reading. Her face was always so expressive and he swore he could read the twists and turns of the story from it without even reading the book. And sometimes she would let out angry “no”s or surprised yelps and triumphant “I knew it”s and in more than one occasion she had finished a book and just thrown it across the room. He couldn’t wait to hear all about this book on their way home later.

“Hey can you go clear the rest of the tables?” his co-worker, an older lady called Midge asked, her voice raspy from cigarettes as she gestured over at the tables from where she was working on dumping a new load of french fries into the fryer.

“Yeah, sure,” Lucas said, needing to walk around after standing behind the counter for so long. He circled the tables, picking up trash and empty trays people had left behind. Nearing Max’s table he smiled at her and she answered it, handing him her empty tray.

“How was the corn dog?” he asked, taking the tray from her.

“Simply exquisite,” Max answered with dramatic flair in her voice as she also handed him a folded-up piece of paper. Lucas furrowed his brows a bit, confused, but she shot a secretive smile at him before going back to her reading.

Lucas went back behind the counter, throwing out the trash and after checking Midge was busy with some customers, and he was hidden behind the lemonade fridge, he opened up the note.

“Okay I don’t know if it’s this book but that man in the grey suit, at the table in front of Taco Bell looks just like a secret agent. Tell me I’m not wrong!”

Lucas huffed out a laugh, folding the piece of paper back up and putting it into the pocket of his gaudy striped uniform. He silently thanked Max again for giving him something to distract him from his repetitive job. And speaking of said job.

“Lucas, can you get more ketchup from the back, apparently we’ve ran out,” Midge yelled out to him and Lucas sighed, turning towards the storage room, his mind already at work, figuring he could take a look at the alleged secret agent man while replacing the ketchup.

 

Putting the plan into motion took a little longer than he had expected, as he was busy first just finding the ketchup and then mopping up lemonade some kid had spilled all over the floor. But after all that, and ringing in some customers as Midge went on her break, he headed out to the condiments station, carrying a big box of ketchup packets. He took his time, picking up ripped up remnants of the empty packets and cleaning the station as he looked around the food court, trying to spot the man Max had mentioned. And as he started to replace the empty dispenser with new ketchup packets, he found him, sitting alone at a table a little ways away. The man was middle-aged, wearing an impeccable grey suit, his dark hair neatly styled. To Lucas the man looked like a regular business man, but he guessed there was something secret agent-like in him, in the way he sat still, reading a newspaper and every once in a while glancing around, as if waiting for someone. Lucas finished emptying the box of ketchup packets so he turned to walk back into the store. When he did, he caught Max’s eye as she looked at him over her book with a question painted on her face, waiting for his verdict on her theory. Lucas shrugged, mouthing “maybe?” at her and seeing her roll her eyes and focusing back on her book, and then he headed back behind the counter, seeing the line of customers that had formed in front of it.

A half a dozen served corn dogs and lemonades later the line died down and Max walked up to the counter again, her steps springy as she kept glancing over at the secret agent man as she walked.

“Hello, what can I get you?” Lucas greeted her, cocking his head back a bit to signal over at Midge who was just behind him, working by the deep fryer.

“Oh, umm… maybe a…” Max started, clearly thrown off a bit and Lucas helped her, whispering:

“Order the cheese on a stick.”

“Um okay, cheese on a stick sounds good I guess,” Max finished her sentence, the tone of her sentence rising by the end and her brow knitting in confusion.

“Oh would you look at that,” Lucas answered, speaking over his shoulder to Midge now.

“I don’t think we have any prepared right now, but there should be some in the back if you don’t mind waiting?”

“I’ll get it,” Midge said lazily, leaving to the storage and Lucas turned to Max who nodded, impressed.

“Sorry, that was the only thing we were out of, if you want something else you can just say you changed your mind,” he quickly explained.

“No it’s fine. Having a second deep-fried monstrosity on a stick won’t kill me. A third one though? Might have to pass on that,” Max answered with a wave of her hand. Lucas nodded, punching in her order to the machine and they were quiet for a second until Max leaned forward, her hands on the counter.

“So? What do you think? Secret agent or not?” she asked, her eyes gleaming with mischief.

“I mean he’s got the look but how do you know he’s not just a regular old business man?” Lucas argued and Max seemed to have been ready for his argument as she pressed on:

“Well I’ve been observing him for a while now —” to that Lucas commenting it was mildly creepy “— and he’s been sitting there for a long time. Way longer than a busy businessman would. Plus, he ordered a Taco Bell seafood salad with milk. That’s gotta be some kind of secret code, no person in their right mind would get that,” she concluded, her face scrunching up in disgust.

“What kind of code would it be then? Except a signal of his gross eating habits?” Lucas asked in skepticism, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Well you know how agents get codes to meet someone to get secret information. And they are given coordinates for the meeting spot, and detailed instructions to prove they were authorized to receive the secret files,” Max elaborated.

“Soo… if I go and order a seafood salad, a shady looking guy in a suit will come over to me with a briefcase full of top secret information?” Lucas asked, a smile starting to tug at his lips. This was far-flung and ridiculous and just what he needed to pass the time at his boring job.

“Maybe. Have you ever ordered that?” Max countered, a smile on her face too.

“Just you wait, soon there’s gonna be this tall and intimidating looking agent lady with an eyepatch that is going to sit at his table. And she’s gonna have a code, like she’s gonna ask him to pass the cheese dip and then she’s gonna hand him a locked metal suitcase with the nuclear codes or something,” Max concluded her theory with a conspiratorial smile.

“Alright then, gonna keep my eye on it,” Lucas answered as Midge got back, starting to fry Max’s order behind him.

“Are you close to finishing that book of yours?” he added, changing the subject.

“Yeah, a couple more chapters left and I’m freaking out! You know the scrappy tech guy who’s been helping the agent for the whole time? Well he just got kidnapped by the Russians and now the hero is stranded in Prague!” she explained, gesturing wildly with her hands, her eyes wide in excitement. She paused to take a breath before continuing but before she did, Midge came over with her order.

“One cheese on a stick, would you like something else?”

“Oh, umm, just a Coke, thanks,” Max said and Midge set the tray with the order on the counter and turned to go and get her drink.

“Well sounds like the plot is ramping up then, are you trying to finish it today? You can tell me all about it on the drive home,” Lucas said, finishing punching her order in.

“Probably. I’m sensing a cliffhanger, so I’ll have plenty to vent about in the car if I do,” Max answered, giving him a bill and paying for her order.

“Can’t wait,” he replied, handing her her change with a smile.

“Me neither,” she said with a bright smile of her own, her eyes shining as their gaze drifted down to his lips. He gulped, about to say something, when Midge came in, placing the soda can on Max’s tray.

“Here you go. Enjoy your meal!” she said in an affectless customer service voice and Max thanked her, picking up the tray and shooting Lucas a grin before turning to walk back to her table. Lucas sighed, looking up at the large clock hanging high on the wall above the food court. One more hour left.

 

By 8:45 the food court was pretty much empty. Most of the stores at the mall had already closed as had some of the food vendors and Lucas was wiping the tables as slow and as meticulously as possible, trying to kill time until they would close at nine. The guy working at Burger King, a classmate of Lucas’s named Cal, apparently had the same strategy as he mopped the floor of his section, gazing off into nothingness, his eyelids drooping. Fifteen minutes and then both of them would be free to go and spend the rests of their Friday nights doing anything else. And in Lucas’s case that meant driving back home with Max in her beat-up vintage Cadillac, taking the long way round and listening to music and talking about everything until having to get back for her curfew. And speaking of Max, there was a loud noise from her table and as Lucas looked over, she was sitting slumped in her chair, staring into space, her eyes nearly bulging out of her head, her mouth open in shock, her book laying in front of her on the table. Seemed like she had been right about the cliffhanger.

“That bad, huh?” Lucas asked with a sympathetic smile as he walked up to her, starting to wipe her table clean.

“Uh-huh,” she simply voiced, her voice tensed and outraged, but still picking up the book out of the way of his cleaning. She stuttered for a bit, her brain still clearly jumbled as she opened and closed her mouth. Then she suddenly jumped up, the screech the chair made against the floor loud in the nearly empty room.

“Hey do you think the bookstore is still open? Cause I don’t have the next book and I need to know what happens!” she asked, picking up her things, already glancing over at the escalator leading to the second floor where the bookstore was.

“Oh, I don’t remember, it could be?” Lucas said, surprised but amused by her sudden enthusiasm.

“Okay, well I’ll go and check. I’ll be right back!” she said, quickly squeezing his arm before running off, taking the escalator up two steps at a time, her red hair swinging behind her as she did. And Lucas was left looking after her as she did, a sheepy smile rising to his face. Cause of course she would be impatient and excited enough to run to the bookstore to spend all her money on the sequel.

 

Both Lucas and Midge were as quick as humanly possible when closing off the restaurant and at precisely 9:03 pm they shut and locked the door, stepping out to the empty food court.

“Bye,” Midge said simply with a yawn, hurrying off and Lucas answered with a wave and with her gone he was all alone in the vast and darkened space. He zipped up his hoodie better, now back in his regular clothes as he looked around for Max. She should be here any minute now. Walking over to the fountain that had just been turned off for the night, Lucas listened to the sounds of the empty mall, the groans of air conditioning and the staticky noise of the screens and neon signs making his stomach twist, reminding him of that particular July night at the mall over three years ago. During daytime he could forget it all but when the mall was dark and empty like this? Let’s just say that was one more reason why he hated night shifts.

“Hey!” Max’s voice echoed from behind him and Lucas jumped a bit, turning to see her walking over to him from the direction of the bathrooms.

“Were you waiting for long? Sorry, I was just…” she explained, pointing behind her.

“It’s fine, I just got off. That was probably the quickest close-up we’ve ever done, there were no customers for the last ten minutes,” Lucas explained as Max made her way to him.

“Hey, good on you! You can tell that to your boss and be on your way for that coveted Hot Dog on a Stick employee of the month award!” she said with a smile as she got to him, her hand immediately going over to fix the hood of his sweatshirt he had pulled on in a hurry.

“I’m pretty sure that’s not a thing,” he countered, looking down at her as she shrugged and said that he could ask him to make it a thing. They were silent for a bit, Max’s hands moving down to play with the strings of his hoodie.

“But hey, any luck with the bookstore?” Lucas asked and at that Max looked up, excitement in her gaze.

“No, it was closed. But…” she started before taking a step back to reach down to her back jean pocket.

“You know how it’s right next to the movie theater?” she asked, her eyes glinting as she looked up at him, hiding whatever she had in her hand behind her back.

“Yeah?” Lucas asked, confused.

“Did you look at the showtimes for tomorrow?”

“I did. But there was also one more showing of They Live tonight, so…” she explained, grinning as she brought her hand up between them, holding two movie tickets.

“So looks like our movie date is still a go!”

“What? Really!” Lucas exclaimed, joy rising onto his face along with a wide happy smile.

“Uh-huh, at 9:15, so we better hurry if we’re gonna get the M&Ms from the car first,” Max said and Lucas blinked at her, not believing what he was hearing.

“We… what? You..?” he stuttered and Max nodded eagerly.

“Yep, I bought some on my way here. Like I told you, I was determined to halve tonight’s suckiness if it just meant making out in the car and eating peanut M&Ms,” she explained, stepping closer and draping her arms onto his shoulders, linking them behind his neck. Lucas still just stared down at her, a giddy laugh escaping him.

“Thank you,” he said, his voice filled with joyful surprised and sincerity, his brown eyes locked onto her pale blue ones.

“You’re welcome,” Max replied, her lips falling open just slightly, never breaking eye contact as she gently pulled him down to her by his neck and he was still smiling when she softly set her lips on his. And now he was glad about the emptiness of the mall as he kissed her back, holding onto her waist as the kiss deepened.

Breaking the kiss, they leaned away just a few inches and Lucas quietly laughed again.

“What?” Max asked, now the confused one.

“Oh crap my breath smells like deep-fried cheese, doesn’t it?” she exclaimed, ducking her head back but Lucas cupped the side of her face, gently turning it back to look at him.

“No! I mean yeah, it does, but it’s okay,” he said and Max looked up at him with her dead-panned expression.

“Suure,” she voiced and Lucas laughed again, shaking his head a bit before focusing back on her.

“I just wanted to say that I love you, Max,” he said, his voice soft and sincere and his heart leaping at the soft, almost shy smile that appeared on her face as he said it. They were not the couple to throw those words around often, but the happiness and joy and love coursing through him right now had pretty much forced them out. And by the bright and contented look on her face, he figured he really should tell them to her more often.

“I know,” she replied with a grin, and Lucas rolled his eyes before she continued, sincerity and adoring clear in her voice:

“And I love you too.” She leaned back in to set a couple soft pecks on his lips before pulling away properly this time.

“But we really have to hurry if we’re gonna make it in time. I’m not about to miss a second of the alien-robot-invasion, anti-establishment-rebellion greatness!” she said, taking his hand and starting to pull him along the hallway and he followed, not even fighting the giddy smile that seemed to be permanently plastered on his face now. The suckiness of the Friday night had officially been halved.


End file.
